Watch Dates on Poultry Feed!

[Folly's place]

Here our local TSC stores are actually our best options, for fresh feed especially. It's so dependent on local store practices!
Mary

 

[angeldiver]

That's a good theory, maybe it works that way on a district level, but that's not how it works on an individual store basis.
Pallets come loaded and dragged to floor, after it's empty, a new, full pallet takes its place. There's no stacking of new feed on old feed, its the opposite, old on new.

That’s not necessarily true. I have witnessed the stacking of new on old. I, also, have gotten old, moldy food from TSC twice. Both times they gave me new bags, but this shouldn’t be happening. They need to look at their practices and do what’s right.

 

[svbergie]

A few months ago I bought a bag of Nutrena Chick Starter/Grower at my local Tractor Supply store. When I got home I opened the bag to pour it into a galvanized container and noticed the color was paler than usual, the product seemed 'powdery' and there were lots of large clumps, as if it had gotten wet. The bag looked like new, no sign of moisture.

I took photos of the product and label and e-mailed those to Nutrena from their online portal. They were very quick to respond and tell me that bag of feed was just shy of ONE YEAR OLD!. They recommend using their feed within 90 days of manufacture. On the label the date is clearly marked with the month and year of manufacture.

Nutrena was great! They mailed me a coupon for a new bag of feed and put me in contact with their local retail sales representative. The sales rep admitted he had been trying to get all his Tractor Supply stores to properly rotate poultry feeds for months with no cooperation from TSC.

I contacted Tractor Supply about the issue. They promised to correct it. Since that time (last September) I have purchased Nutrena Poultry feeds at Tractor Supply stores in Yuma, Colorado, Guymon, Oklahoma and in Kansas stores in Pratt, Liberal, Garden City and Colby. In EVERY SINGLE TRACTOR SUPPLY STORE I've found the exact same condition... OLD, OLD feed on the bottom of the display with newer feed stacked on top.

If you buy feed at Tractor Supply please be sure to check the dates. On Nutrena, it's easy. The label shows the month and date such as, Dec2024. They don't use a code.

I have complained to Tractor Supply but they just don't seem to take it seriously. I contacted Nutrena's sales rep again and he said he continued to try to get the TSC employees to rotate feed but they just won't do it.

Yesterday, I was in Tractor Supply at Liberal, Kansas to purchase a bag of Nutrena Layer Pellets. The bag on top was dated September 2024. Technically, that's out of date but all the other bags were missing the labels. They had been removed! Apparently, Tractor Supply employees have now taken to removing labels to disguise out-of-date poultry feeds!!!

I notified the Nutrena sales rep of this and, again, he confirmed that appeared to be Tractor Supply's "solution" to the date problem. He also advised that Big R, another local farm supply retailer, also sells Nutrena and "does a very good job of rotating stocks".

I've tried for months to get Tractor Supply to fix their rotation practices but they just refuse to do it. Please be advised and watch out for your flock!

Thank you so much for the post! I’m a new chicken momma and had no idea about expiration days! I have been buying from TS, and will check my stalk for out of date feed. Again, thank you for your post!

 

[Love Donkeys]

We buy all our feed at our County Farmers Cooperative. They sell so much feed there is no chance for it to go beyond its expiration date. There could be a farmers type Cooperative near you that uses locally grown crops to manufacture the feed. You would be helping your local farmers and your community. Instead of buying poor quality feed which is making large companies rich.

 

[Folly's place]

Livestock feed is not labeled by expiration date, rather by mill date, and where ever it's bought, do check the date on each bag!
Mary

 

[BumChicks]

We have a brand new (less than 6months since opening) TSC in town and I have yet to find a bag with a mill date less than 1 year old. Most of the Purina Layena bags were milled in 2022. Unbelievable. After returning the first 3 bags I purchased from them (my first 3 visits to the store) I asked to talk to the manager and she said that is not out of the ordinary and should not be a problem, never mind they were terribly moldy. She said, "we have tried to remove all the wet bags after Hurricane Beryl but we must have missed some." Sure, ok. But the 2-4 year old bags of food didn't bother them at all. Told her if she wasn't worried about the animals she ought to worry about the people inhaling the moldy dust from the food. Blank stare.

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

We buy all our feed at our County Farmers Cooperative. They sell so much feed there is no chance for it to go beyond its expiration date. There could be a farmers type Cooperative near you that uses locally grown crops to manufacture the feed. You would be helping your local farmers and your community. Instead of buying poor quality feed which is making large companies rich.

In Alberta here, 2 manufacturers no longer print the mill date on the bags. I am told the mill date can determined by using the lot number. There is no way to find any information based on the lot number, for example by going to their website.

I used to go to a small local feed store, now I travel further to go to the large farm cooperative as they go through a lot of inventory so I assume there is less risk of buying old stock.

 

[Folly's place]

Idiots everywhere!
And keep checking those mill dates on each bag: I hate having to ask to figure out a 'secret code', and would buy something else, or shop elsewhere.
Sorry you are dealing with this.
Mary

 

[chickenfarmer23]

A few months ago I bought a bag of Nutrena Chick Starter/Grower at my local Tractor Supply store. When I got home I opened the bag to pour it into a galvanized container and noticed the color was paler than usual, the product seemed 'powdery' and there were lots of large clumps, as if it had gotten wet. The bag looked like new, no sign of moisture.

I took photos of the product and label and e-mailed those to Nutrena from their online portal. They were very quick to respond and tell me that bag of feed was just shy of ONE YEAR OLD!. They recommend using their feed within 90 days of manufacture. On the label the date is clearly marked with the month and year of manufacture.

Nutrena was great! They mailed me a coupon for a new bag of feed and put me in contact with their local retail sales representative. The sales rep admitted he had been trying to get all his Tractor Supply stores to properly rotate poultry feeds for months with no cooperation from TSC.

I contacted Tractor Supply about the issue. They promised to correct it. Since that time (last September) I have purchased Nutrena Poultry feeds at Tractor Supply stores in Yuma, Colorado, Guymon, Oklahoma and in Kansas stores in Pratt, Liberal, Garden City and Colby. In EVERY SINGLE TRACTOR SUPPLY STORE I've found the exact same condition... OLD, OLD feed on the bottom of the display with newer feed stacked on top.

If you buy feed at Tractor Supply please be sure to check the dates. On Nutrena, it's easy. The label shows the month and date such as, Dec2024. They don't use a code.

I have complained to Tractor Supply but they just don't seem to take it seriously. I contacted Nutrena's sales rep again and he said he continued to try to get the TSC employees to rotate feed but they just won't do it.

Yesterday, I was in Tractor Supply at Liberal, Kansas to purchase a bag of Nutrena Layer Pellets. The bag on top was dated September 2024. Technically, that's out of date but all the other bags were missing the labels. They had been removed! Apparently, Tractor Supply employees have now taken to removing labels to disguise out-of-date poultry feeds!!!

I notified the Nutrena sales rep of this and, again, he confirmed that appeared to be Tractor Supply's "solution" to the date problem. He also advised that Big R, another local farm supply retailer, also sells Nutrena and "does a very good job of rotating stocks".

I've tried for months to get Tractor Supply to fix their rotation practices but they just refuse to do it. Please be advised and watch out for your flock!

So.... we recently had a horrible experience with Tractor Supply's medicated starter feed from Purina. We didnt notice clumps until the bottom of the bag, but we were noticing our baby chicks were acting strange. They suddenly started pooping blood, they were lethargic, falling over, and dying suddenly. We thought it was coccidiosis, but upon further digging, we found out it was MOLD. We went to TS first think in the morning and told them what happened. They surprisingly took great care of us, replaced the feed and checked the new bags, gave us sealed samples of the bad feed in case we needed proof, and gave us contact information to report it to corporate. They also offered us first pick of the next shipment of chicks they get in. Well see if everything follows through, but we appreciated the care taken.

 

[gtaus]

My local Fleet store goes through so much feed, that I honestly have not been concerned about the mill date. They bring out a pallet of food at a time and it is gone in a week or two, then a new pallet is brought out to the sales floor. They practice stock rotation by the pallet load. No need to worry about them stacking new bags on top of old bags of feed. They don't bother to bring out new stock until the previous pallet is empty.

I will stock up on feed if there is a good sale. I bring the bags of feed home and transfer them to 5-gallon buckets with airtight lids. I think the airtight lids help to extend the shelf life of feed, compared to feed in a bag that can breath and get old faster. Storage conditions play a major factor, but the buckets protect the feed more than the bags.

I got a lot of FREE 5-gallon buckets at Harbor Freight over the past couple of years...

They have FREE bucket weekend sales about every 3-4 months. If you are not a member, you can usually get a bucket with a $29.99 purchase. If you are a Harbor Freight Inside Track Club (ITC) member, you can get a FREE bucket with any purchase. I am an ITC member. In any case, I got a lot of those FREE buckets and purchased some airtight lids.

The feed can be safely stored for longer in a bucket with airtight lid than in the original bag. In any case, I use all my feed up within 6 months, but more typically 3 months max storage time.

It's much easier for me to move and stack 25# buckets full of feed than trying to transfer a full 50# bag of feed without a handle. I put a masking tape label on the bucket and write the date of the feed on the tape. I make sure I rotate my buckets with the newest feed on the bottom of the stack. That way, the oldest feed always gets used first. It's not just the store that should be practicing stock rotation; we have to make sure we do it at home as well.